Secrets of Fame
by corymontetih
Summary: When teen sensation Rachel Berry decides to take a break from the pressures of fame by secretly enrolling at McKinley High School, all she has in mind are parties, friends, and prom. What she didn't expect were slushy facials, evil cheerleaders, and she most definitely didn't expect to fall for Finn Hudson: the goofy, kind, amber eyed 6'3 quarterback.
1. The Idea

**Hi, I hope you enjoy my new fic! I was working on _Scandal_ when this idea popped into my head and refused to leave me alone for over a week. It's loosely based off of one of my favorite books back in elementary school, _Secrets of My Hollywood Life_. You might see the similarities in this chapter, but that's due to the fact I'm setting up everything quite similarly to the book before I completely let loose into my version.  
**

**Also no worries, I'm still working on _Scandal_. Sadly, I just don't have much inspiration for it at the moment. I will be writing this fic alongside _Scandal_, although that means you'll probably have to wait longer for updates if you're sticking to only one of them.**

**Enjoy! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Glee, or SoMHL.**

* * *

_**Fame Secret Number One: **__Not everyone who's famous gets along with each other. It's a given. Even if you've read a thousand magazine articles or watched every interview you could possibly get your hands on about how great of friends two costars are, chances are, it's not even true to the slightest degree. After their movie or show is over and done with, the same fate will be applied to their "friendship". The truth is celebrities just love good publicity so much, that they'll say or do anything to get it._

Finished with jotting down her latest idea in her journal, Rachel snapped the book shut and picked up a magazine lying about on her bed. Quickly skimming through the pages and stopping at one with her face plastered on it, she rolled her eyes at the ridiculous article in her hands.

"_St. Berry, Off Again_?" The bright, flashy title read. "Pictured below are a couple snapshots of the lovely on and off couple (Berry, 16 and St. James, 18) spotted leaving Serendipity together on Thursday night. Witnesses claim that the two seemed very inattentive and bored with one another's company, eventually concluding with Berry having to call an end to the date after a quick squabble, seeming to have had enough for one night. Management for both Berry and St. James have yet to comment on the current state of their relationship, but we here at Teen Weekly think the answer's quite clear: the off switch has been hit for this young couple yet again!"

The truth was, Rachel could hardly stand being in the same room as Jesse St. James, and the feeling was mutual. In fact, Jesse hated being in the same room as, well, anybody. The guy was so full of himself that there wasn't ever any space anywhere he went for anyone other than himself. At first, a naïve eight year old Rachel had admired him and had been more than excited to work with him on _The Family_, a now hit TV show she'd easily snagged the part from nearly 9 years ago as a child actor. Even at 10 years old, Jesse St. James was quite full of himself for a young boy, attempting to overshadow her at any given chance. For example, at one point in the first few weeks they had worked with one another, he'd ripped her script to shreds after finding out she had received more screentime in an episode than he did.

She still remembered how painful it had been for the two to be cast as leads together yet again in Funny Girl. Broadway had been such a fantastic experience, but Jesse had definitely ruined most of it for her with his constant complaining and egotistical comments. Unfortunately, the director insisted that in order to keep the part, both of them would have to play their roles together or neither would. Of course, her manager Santana had found a way to make things even worse, starting all the way back from the very minute Rachel turned 13 and was deemed old enough to date.

"_Rachel, you're literally known as New York's sweetheart. You can't just go around bashing your beloved costar, no matter how much of a pain in the ass he really is. The fact is, everyone else in the world sees you two as like America's new "It Couple" and insulting him would only drag your reputation through the mud." Santana explained, not even batting an eye while busy observing the manicure she had done for hundreds of dollars._

"_Well, it's not who I am." Rachel bit her lip, flinching at Santana's sudden glare. "I know you're my manager and all, but the "Rachel Berry" that the public knows me as, isn't really me when it comes to dealing with Jesse."_

"_Who cares what you really think about him sweetie?" Santana rolled her eyes. "Nobody, that's who. Anyways, you can be trash-talking about Jesse St. Jackass all you want on your own time, but when you're in the public eye, you better be holding hands or doing something with the guy if you want more publicity for the show. That's just how fame works."_

And that had been it. Santana's word was law to Rachel's ears, and she was too timid and exhausted to bother fighting her any further on the subject. Since then, she'd been "on and off" with Jesse for the past few years and the pair had always been known as America's Teen Power Couple. No ifs, ands, or buts.

That wasn't to say that Rachel hadn't come close to blowing her fuse with Jesse, in fact, she'd nearly called the entire thing quits on numerous occasions throughout the years, and sometimes even gone through with the decision, most recently during their little outing at Serendipity.

"_Haven't you enjoyed Funny Girl? The show did so well with the two of us starring in it obviously." Jesse stated in a flat tone, playing with the straw in his glass._

"_I guess. As fun as it was, I'm kind of relieved it's almost over with, along with Season 8 of The Fam." Rachel answered, more concentrated on the food set in front of her than her companion for the night. "I suppose our whole "dating" thing is what got us those parts in Funny Girl to begin with."_

_Jesse nodded, shoving a piece of steak into his mouth. "Of course it did, we've been America's Hottest Couple since the minute we met in TF, even if you only were 8. For what absurd reason, I don't know either. Look at us now, 8 years later and things have barely changed."_

_Rachel shrugged. At least he hadn't taken the credit for himself._

"_Although, the reason we got those roles on Broadway probably has more to do with the fact that I nearly won a Tony for my performance, and the fact that the two of us have stellar chemistry due to my incredible acting skills." Jesse acknowledged with pride in his voice._

_She spoke too soon. Rachel narrowed her eyes at him. "Excuse me?"_

"_Well Rachel, let's be frank. First of all, which of the two of us received a nomination for a Tony?" Jesse rolled his eyes, ignoring the glare Rachel was sending him. "Second, you can't possibly think for even a second that I've ever been sincerely attracted to you? Great acting skills on my part, as always, if I say so myself. You're a bit shabby at times, but I wouldn't expect you to be able to reach the incredibly high bar I've set. No hard feelings, darling."_

"_Check please!" Rachel exclaimed, ignoring Jesse's frantic attempts at signaling how he wasn't done with his meal and finding it extremely difficult to hide the frustration growing in her voice._

Rachel flipped the page of her magazine, shuddering at her thoughts of having to "date" Jesse St. James the past 3 years of her life. If only the public knew what things really took place behind all the curtains and TV sets.

Her eyebrows furrowed in disbelief at what the next article had to say about her.

"_Is Rachel Berry Losing Her Cool?"_

She quickly scanned the article, narrowing her eyes as she read on. The story contained claims of Rachel threatening to quit the show, a rivalry with one of her costars on _TF_, and how Rachel had supposedly begged for Jesse to take her back into her arms after realizing their amazing shared chemistry in Funny Girl (the mention of that one nearly had Rachel running to the toilet to throw her lunch up) yet dumping him again soon afterward.

The last line had her reeling in fury. "16 year olds often go through hormonal rampages, so perhaps that's the cause for the many rough situations Berry has found herself in these past few weeks, but the issue could be more than just her usual lusting after Jesse St. James – is Rachel Berry no longer America's Sweetheart?"

The worst part was that all of these claims were far from true. Who would bother spending their time making such absurd accusations about her? Rachel skimmed through the lies, hoping to find a source beneath it all, and her eyes narrowed when she caught a glimpse of a name written beside a lame quote of how much they would miss Rachel once she was gone from the show. She let out a sigh of annoyance before grabbing her phone to make a call.

"Hello?" The innocent, melodic voice rang at the other end.

"Harmony, have you checked out the latest article about _The Family _in Teen Weekly?" Rachel said sweetly, holding back her anger.

"I did, Rachel." Harmony replied. "And honestly, who could've written such awful things about you? I didn't know the writers would be killing you off after 8 years of such _splendid work_ on their show."

"Shut up, Harmony." Rachel hissed. "You sent in that rumor to make yourself look better, as usual with your ridiculous schemes. Don't you think this is pushing it a bit?"

Rachel heard a slight gasp, pushing her rage even further. "Rachel? Why in the world would you accuse me of doing such a thing? In fact, I talked to the writers personally myself and they said that any rumors surrounding your character's death are lies because they've never planned it before, and certainly weren't about to!"

"Well obviously it wasn't true, you should know since you _are_ the one who made it all up." Rachel snapped angrily.

"I don't know what you're talking about, dear." Harmony cooed.

Rachel attempted to calm herself down, knowing that getting upset with her would only end up on as a new hit story on E! tonight. "Well, there's the whole other story about Rachel Berry supposedly throwing a diva fit toward costar Harmony Pierce, causing the latter to burst into uncontrollable tears, running off set." She replied bitterly, clenching her teeth.

"Someone must really not like you, Rachel." Harmony said innocently. "And I heard about the other claims of you throwing yourself after Jesse, how shocking. You better watch yourself before these stories get out of control." She drawled. "I mean, I for one don't believe them, but who knows what the public will think?"

On that note, Rachel hung up before she could order Santana to drive right on over to Harmony's apartment so she could unleash Santana's "Lima Heights" wrath all over her. Rachel was never one for violence, but Harmony always managed to push her to the brink of it.

Letting out a groan, she put her head in her hands as she struggled to clear her head. It was days like this that caused her to desire moving to the middle of nowhere, particularly a random island somewhere near the Bahamas, just to escape all the hectic stress and pressure fame brought on a daily basis. Now that _The Family_ had wrapped up an eighth season, maybe she could finally take a break and disappear for a bit, far away from the flashy lights of show biz, along with thousands of miles separating her from the egotistical Jesse St. James and equally as self centered Harmony Pierce.

Rachel sighed, shoving her face into her pillow. Who was she kidding? She still had a few showings of Funny Girl left to finish up, and then what? It's a given that if you're someone as famous as Rachel Berry, having your face plastered literally everywhere from magazine covers to boys' lockers and rooms all across the country, there was simply no way to disappear without people bound to notice.

* * *

"You have about an hour for hair and makeup before we snap some pictures of you pointing out your favorite items in the store. Then we'll get to the questions part and you'll be free to go. Sounds good?" The blonde haired interviewer asked.

Rachel nodded, smiling as she walked on over to her stylists, Adam and Stacy. The pair had been her hair and makeup artists ever since she started on _TF_ all those years ago, and to this day, she loved them to bits and not even for a heartbeat would she ever consider replacing them.

"Hello darling." Adam beamed. "As always, you're glowing with all that natural beauty we make a fuss about." He gently tousled her hair, examining it strand by strand.

"Oh geez Rachel, how rough of a night did you have?" Stacy gasped, her eyes widening as she examined Rachel's dark circles.

Rachel grinned sheepishly. "Yeah well, I've been busy reading those ridiculous articles all night, contemplating whether or not to storm over to Harmony's and give her a piece of my mind."

"Not a good idea, sweetie. As much as we all hate the lil brat, she's definitely not worth bruising your reputation over." Stacy gave her a playful smile, getting straight to work by pulling numerous brushes out of the bag set on the counter.

"Oh, Harmony; how sweet of a name, but also quite a misleading one, since that girl is anything but sweet." Adam rolled his eyes, grabbing the curling iron while waiting for it to heat up.

"So what kind of look are we going for today?" Stacy asked, as she dabbed concealer under Rachel's eyes to begin covering up the noticeable dark circles.

"Aren't I just going shopping?" Rachel murmured. "Normally, people just go out in a hoodie or something, no?"

Both Stacy and Adam gave her a strange look, placing their hands on their hips. "Hon, we've already discussed this. You're not a normal person, you're a star! You need to blow everyone away, no matter what it is you're doing." Adam replied, a hint of exasperation in his voice.

"Shopping for a new bag?" Rachel chuckled, allowing Adam to pick up a strand of her loose brown hair to start curling it.

"Of course!" Stacy squealed, focusing in on her eyebrows. "You can't be walking around Michael Kors in sweatpants, just the idea of it makes me sick." Stacy cringed at the thought before quickly returning back to work.

"Why not?"

"Stars aren't just normal people, Rachel." Adam explained, sighing. "So yes, your little animal sweaters you still keep buried at the bottom of your closet are totally out of question. I have no idea why you haven't gotten to burning them yet, the atrocity of it all." He paused for a moment, shuddering.

Rachel giggled, rolling her eyes. Secretly, she wished she could go out shopping in a pair of sweats and one of her animal sweaters, but Adam would probably kill her before she could even take a step out of the house. Not to mention, Harmony would probably be dishing on a talk show or two soon after about the monstrosity of a fashion statement she'd supposedly be trying to make.

Adam quickly sprayed her hair another time before giving her a big grin, allowing her to walk back over to the interviewer.

"Wow, Rachel! You look great like always." The girl exclaimed.

"Thank you." Rachel smiled. In the end, Stacy had given up trying to apply glitter all over her face and had allowed her to walk off with just some slight eyeliner, mascara, and a touch of eyeshadow.

"My name's Hanna, by the way." She added before quickly following Rachel about, a photographer right on her heels. Eventually, about half an hour went by as he snapped multiple photos of Rachel posing with various items she found in the store to be somewhat to her liking, until thankfully the photo session was finally brought to an end, much to Rachel's pleasure due to her extreme discomfort in her 5 inch heels.

Settling down onto a comfortable chair, a woman hurriedly made her way over to Rachel, beaming at the sight of her.

"Rachel Berry! I'm Natalie, in charge of public relations for this particular store and on behalf of Michael Kors, this is for you." She handed Rachel numerous shopping bags, filled to the brim with numerous items from the store, which Rachel accepted graciously, but noted she had more than enough products, clutches, and bags scattered about in her house already. In fact, she could probably operate a small designer brand store if she really wanted to. She made a mental note to add a little new entry to her journal later.

_**Fame Secret Number Two:**_ _For some reason, the bigger of a star you are, the more free stuff you're entitled to. It's weird because you'd think the more money you have to afford stuff, the less free things you'd receive, but it's the complete opposite. Simply add in a comment during an interview about how much you enjoy a certain fragrance, and you'll see a crate filled with it waiting on your doorstep the next morning._

The interview began with seemingly harmless questions, mostly pertaining to favorite outfits, bags, and how much Rachel paid for them. As it progressed however, it was very clear that Hanna really wanted in on any of the juicy gossip she could squeeze out of her.

"Jesse St. James is pretty much the dream man of every girl I work with! It must be such a pleasure to have worked with him for so long on _The Fam_, and also having had the chance to share the Broadway spotlight with him as well." Hanna gushed. "Isn't he quite the hunk?" Rachel nearly choked, trying her best to avoid erupting with laughter from that statement.

"I suppose. Jesse's a really great guy, and a pretty good kisser." Rachel giggled, holding back the fact that she hadn't had much experience with anyone else, and nearly vomiting from the first half of her statement.

"Of course, the two of you are often shown macking on each other's faces lately on the show, but how about off of it? We know that the two of you have been in a relationship a couple of times before, but are the sparks back on for St. Berry?" Hanna pressed with a big grin on her face.

Rachel shook her head, trying hard to keep the smile on her face. "Sorry to let you St. Berry fanatics down, but Jesse and I are strictly friends at the moment, which is a decision that, we both mutually agree, is for the best right now." Rachel answered firmly, exactly as Santana had rehearsed with her a million times earlier in the day.

"Ooh, that's a real shame, because the two of you are just too adorable together. Are there any other guys in your life right now that you'd be willing to share with us?" She winked.

Rachel shook her head again, laughing. "Unfortunately, no. My hands have been tied between working my butt off on Broadway and on _TF_, not to mention all the studying I have to do on the side." She let out a groan, earning her a laugh from Hanna.

"As you've probably already heard about, _Teen Weekly_ wrote an article revolving around some claims involving you. One included that you were desperately pining for Jesse St. James after a fierce argument with Harmony Pierce recently, is that true?"

Rachel resisted the urge to vent about how horrible of a person Harmony truly was beyond her fake, plastic exterior and instead chose to give a weak smile. "I think someone on set's been on the bottle too often or something! I can assure all my fans that none of these rumors are true, and even with all our ups and downs, in the end everyone on _The Family_ is, well, a true family!"

Hanna nodded, pressing stop on her recorder as she looked back up with a smile and gave Rachel a quick hug. "Alright, that was great Rachel. Thanks for taking the time to do this with us today!"

"It was my pleasure." Rachel replied warmly, before looking over to see Adam and Stacy both giving her thumbs up, signaling she did indeed do well. She walked over and grinned before taking a glance down at her phone, her smile quickly fading as she noticed the multiple missed calls and messages.

"Oh no, Kurt's going to kill me."

* * *

"I really hope you have a good reason for being an hour and a half late, Rachel Berry." Kurt huffed, grabbing his salad and walking over to an empty table.

"Here." Rachel shoved the bags she'd received from Michael Kors into his hands, his eyes widening in glee as he burrowed through the contents to take a proper look at his new gifts. "No need to mention it." She cut him off before he even managed to utter the word thank.

He pursed his lips, resisting the urge to smile. "I suppose your tardiness has been forgiven another time."

Rachel smirked, before eagerly devouring into the broccoli and chicken slice set in front of her. Kurt cringed as she allowed a slight moan of pleasure to escape her lips.

"I'd expect a famous star like you to at least have better eating habits." Kurt rolled his eyes, shoving a forkful of lettuce into his mouth.

Rachel glared at him, her eyes darting around to make sure her cover was still intact. After quickly scurrying out of Michael Kors, she had thrown on an oversized hoodie she found laying about in the car, along with tying her hair up and putting on a pair of sunglasses. It was a cliché disguise, but hopefully one that wouldn't go amiss.

"Hey, I nearly starved the entire day listening to Santana yapping on and on, for what felt like hours, and then spent the rest of the time prepping for that shoot where I spent half my time complimenting Jesse's kissing skills, along with Harmony's great personality. I deserve this!" Rachel defended herself, taking another bite of her slice.

"Whatever you say." Kurt smirked, leaning over to dab some pizza oil off her face. "Don't worry about any onlookers, nobody's going to think that I, of all people, am hanging around with New York's Sweetheart, although according to the latest stories from Teen Weekly, that doesn't seem to be the case about you anymore." He chuckled. "Fighting over Jesse with Harmony? Really, Rachel? I thought you were better than that?"

Rachel narrowed her eyes at him again, causing him to abruptly throw himself into a fit of laughter. She soon joined in, knowing her best friend understood well enough just how ridiculous everything surrounding her was.

"I have always wondered why you insist on meeting me here all the time though." Kurt added curiously, popping a cherry tomato into his mouth.

"I like the feel of it." Rachel answered honestly, thoughtfully chewing off more of her pizza. "It's so, down to earth."

"You mean loser-esque?" Kurt scoffed. "The only people who come here are just the casual locals, most of them being from McKinley."

"Hey, well I'm the one who's always driving here to see you." Rachel shrugged.

"True, true." Kurt noted. "Although, I don't understand why. You could easily pick me up and we'd go shopping in the city together, maybe have lunch with Demi or—"

"Manhattan's great and all, but I love Long Island." Rachel cut him off firmly, eyeing the rest of the pie in front of them.

"Go ahead; another slice won't kill you, especially with the ridiculously strict diet that your fathers have implanted onto you." Kurt laughed. "I was kidding about your eating habits, you of all people should definitely get to eat whatever they want, when they want it."

Rachel eagerly grabbed a second slice, picking off a bit of broccoli to chew down on. "As I was saying, it's just that Long Island, more specifically Lima, is where home is."

"I still can't believe you convinced your dads to buy the house back." Kurt commented.

Rachel shrugged. "It really wasn't too hard. I just threatened to retire for good at age 16, and that scared them into it pretty easily. I missed the house too much, and I just had to get it back."

"Well I'm glad you did, even if you don't stay in it very often." He pouted.

"Trust me Kurt, I'd love to. But my constantly filled up schedule, courtesy of one Santana Lopez, never allows me to come back here and stay a weekend anymore." Rachel whined, taking another bite. "You're well on your way to becoming the hottest teen star in existence, yet you're focused on snoozing around in some lame little town named after a bean? What's gotten into you Berry?" She mocked the fierce Latina's words, repeated so many times to the point it had been practically carved into her mind.

"At least you're on hiatus now, and Funny Girl's well nearing its end." Kurt pointed out. "You have plenty of free time now, so you could probably stay here with me more often."

"That's what I thought, until Santana insisted with pushing hundreds and hundreds of more interviews, commercials, photoshoots, and the works of it."

"Look at you, you're exhausting yourself. Poor thing." Kurt sighed, chewing on his salad thoughtfully. "I guess our planned vacation to the Hamptons is on hold indefinitely now."

"Sorry." Rachel mumbled through a mouthful of broccoli and chicken, making Kurt roll his eyes.

"Tell Santana who's in charge!" Kurt encouraged.

"Kurt, have you seen her? Sometimes, she's scarier than anyone I've ever met, and that includes my dad. Speaking of my dads, they're on board with the whole work-her-butt-off-until-she's-got-that-Tony-and-Em my-in-her-hands plan. It's ridiculous." Rachel wiped her mouth frustratingly. "They refuse to let me take a break from it all. When I suggested I take a mini vacation, they acted as if I was retiring completely when in reality, I'm not even quitting my job or anything. All I want is a good half a year away from Harmony, St. Berry, and those stupid daily interviews Santana keeps lining up for me."

Kurt looked at her for a second, a gentle expression resting on his face. "Sorry Rachel, you know the deal with fame. It definitely sucks though. On the other hand, at least you don't have to deal with school." Kurt sighed, setting his fork down. "Junior year has been awful to me so far. For one, I'm seated next to a bunch of Neanderthals in French who always intend on making my life as miserable as possible. Luckily I get a go at them in fluent French, which clearly they don't have the brain cells to understand at all."

Rachel rolled her eyes which earned a punch in the shoulder.

"Anyways, I failed yet another Physics quiz and have to turn in a history term paper by the end of next week. Not to mention the Spring Fling which, as usual, I'll have to attend dateless." He grumbled, placing a hand against his face.

"That sounds awful." Rachel chuckled. "But I'd still rather take that for a few months over having to constantly gush about how Harmony's a perfect angel on a daily basis, not to mention facing all the horrid questions about St. Berry."

Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding me? People would kill to have daily interviews over going to school. For the millionth time, high school is not fun Rachel. You're out of your mind."

Rachel grinned, her mind wandering off. It surely wouldn't be too bad to go to school everyday, in fact, it sounded pretty fun. McKinley seemed so completely... normal. A stellar football team, Nationals winning cheerleading team and Glee club, fun parties, school dances, possibly cute boys who cared about more than just how great their hair looked on last week's episode. Every single thing Kurt complained about just seemed so appealing to her.

"You really need to disappear for a good amount of time, for your sake. I think you're slowly going insane with all the stress being piled onto you and it's like a ticking bomb. You don't know when it's going to end up erupting in your face one day." Kurt said seriously.

Rachel didn't have any objection to his completely true statement.

"How about Hawaii? Madrid? Maybe even Seoul!"

"Why don't I just hide myself in the halls of McKinley?" Rachel half joked.

Kurt rolled his eyes, laughing at the absurdity of the proposition. "Now, THAT'S ridiculous." He went back to prodding at his salad, missing the sudden gleam in Rachel's eyes.

Rachel stared into space for a moment, her face scrunching up thoughtfully. "That's it! I can't go too far, which means out of the country or even out of the state is out of question. Wherever I go, I need to keep up on schoolwork, but I wouldn't need a private tutor if I study right in McKinley!" She exclaimed.

Kurt dropped his fork into his plate of lettuce in surprise. "Rachel, you're scaring me. You're kidding, right?" Kurt replied nervously.

"Does this sound like a joke to you? I'm dead serious! I can go to classes with you, excel in my work for junior year, clear my head and take a break from all the irritating tabloids following me. I wouldn't have to leave for anywhere far, and I could do all the publicity crap for Santana's sake outside of school hours to make her happy. As for my dads, they'll probably be fine with it as long as I stick to my commitment of continuing to do interviews and press while juggling schoolwork."

"This honestly sounds like a horribly cliché idea you took out of a cheesy girl movie from a few years back, and this is coming from me. Rachel, I really do think it's a pretty great idea, but it's just not possible! You can't realistically go to American History class with some creepy paparazzi following you around every few seconds to take a glance at the grade on your last test."

"Well, I obviously can't enroll as Rachel Berry." She agreed, allowing Kurt to take a sigh of relief. "Which is why I'll just put on a disguise."

Making a choking noise, Kurt's eyes seemed to widen to the point of nearly bulging out of his head. "ARE YOU INSANE?!"

A few people nearby looked at the pair, causing Rachel to sink lower into her seat.

Glancing around, Kurt took a deep breath as he lowered his voice. "This isn't just some TV show, Rachel. You can't just put on a change of clothes and stroll in there, expecting everyone to fall for it. Someone's bound to recognize you, and that's when Harmony will seize the chance to go for the final kill!"

Ignoring Kurt's overdramatic words with a wave of her hand, Rachel just rolled her eyes in response. "Look, nobody's going to figure it out. I have professional artists by my side! Adam and Stacy will easily make sure I have a killer disguise set in motion the whole time, everything's going to be just fine."

Kurt sighed. "You realize that this is as close to killing your career as you've ever gotten? What if you get caught?"

"I won't!" Rachel assured him firmly, reaching for her pizza again before Kurt snatched it away.

"Be realistic, Rachel. I'm sure Santana and your dads are setting you up for a new gig or something while you're on hiatus anyways."

"I'll refuse." Rachel shrugged. "In the end, it _is_ my life after all. And I know for a fact that I need to take some time away from all this press craziness going on around me. School's gonna be perfect, and once the year's over, maybe I'll be refreshed enough to go right back to dealing with evil Ms. Harmony and Jesse St. Jackass when season 9 starts."

Kurt furrowed his eyebrows, and closed his eyes, breathing heavily. "You're insane."

"Are you going to help me or not? I'll need a guide on my first few days after all." Rachel giggled.

"I think you've lost it, Rachel."

"So is that a yes?"

Kurt sat there in silence, his eyes still closed.

"Look, Kurt I—"

"Fine."

"What?"

"I said fine. Even if this is the most absurd, ridiculous idea I've heard in years, I'll still help you." He snapped. "Besides, how many people live to say they've guided an A-list celebrity around school?"

Rachel squealed loudly, quickly enveloping him into a tight hug which caused Kurt to finally crack a smile, despite the seriousness of the scenario Rachel was plunging herself into.

"Honestly though, I think I'm the least of your worries. Good luck talking your dads and Santana into it." Kurt snickered as he took a bite of his salad, watching as Rachel's face suddenly fell as she nervously bit her bottom lip. "Oh come on Rachel, you can do this. Just pull out your signature dramatic moves on them, with the whole classic puppy dog look you use on me so often, and make sure you're in a public area where they won't be able to kill you when you tell them. Why don't you tell them at the party my dad's throwing tomorrow night?"

Rachel grinned, nodding. "You're right, Kurt!"

"When am I not?"

"Congratulations to your father by the way, I'm happy for him." Rachel added.

"Yes, as fantastic as being a tire shop owner must've been for him, I'm glad he's finally stepping up to a job more suitable for a man as great as him." Kurt replied proudly.

"I know he's going to do an amazing job in Washington." Rachel exclaimed, her mind wandering off again. She was more than excited to relay her plan to her parents, although definitely dreading having to talk about it with Santana. Regardless of what any of them said however, she was determined to get her way.

Rachel Berry was going to McKinley High School.


	2. The Plan

**Thanks for all the alerts and support I've received for this story already! I debated whether to save the introduction of Finn for the next chapter, or this one. Lucky for you, my Finn urges got the best of me. It'll be the only time for quite a while where he talks to Rachel Berry as herself, so savor the moment while it lasts.  
**

**Enjoy! :) And please leave a review, those things are by far, sweeter than candy, but definitely not as sweet as Cory Monteith.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Glee.**

* * *

"Look here, Rachel!"

"Rachel, flash those pearly whites!"

"Hey Rachel, where's Jesse?"

Rachel stepped out of the car, not even batting an eye when she was immediately hounded by the photographers, a noticeably much smaller crowd than usual, to her relief.

"Give us a quick pose before you go in there!"

_**Fame Secret Three:**__ Of course, all celebrities want shots that end up online being as flattering as possible. That being said, there's a trick to it all. There's the classic pose of swiveling your torso so you're standing at an angle along with slightly tilting your head back and plastering a big smile, showing just the right amount of teeth. Rachel's usual go-to however, is her signature over-the-left-shoulder pose, complimented by a million watt smile. It's difficult at first to concentrate with all the flashing in your face, but it gets easier as time goes by._

"Alright, that's enough." Santana said firmly, glaring at a slightly creepy looking photographer who refused to stop.

"You're so damn hot Rachel!" He hollered after her as Santana pulled her away, also managing to send another menacing glare toward the photographer, promptly shutting him up.

Rachel walked into the Hummel residence, quickly scanning the room for her friend who seemed to be nowhere in sight. Everyone turned their heads for a slight second, giving nods and smiles before turning back to their own business. Rachel simply loved that about Lima, the people didn't give her too hard of a time whenever she visited and gave her as much of her privacy as they could. In Lima, Rachel could always relax and feel comfortable, only confirming that this was her true home, which also added onto her ever growing list of reasons as to why enrolling at McKinley would be a perfect idea.

"Alright, now that we've taken care of the idiots flashing their cameras at you and we are now in the safe hands of these townsfolk, I'm going to go hit the booze Berry. I'll see you later." Santana smirked at her before stalking off in search of alcohol.

No sooner than the minute Santana had walked out of her sight, Rachel quickly spotted her dads in deep conversation with a friendly, bald-headed man. Grinning, she made her way over to the trio.

"Rachela!" She heard her daddy exclaim. "My, my, you look wonderful tonight. Are you wearing Marc Jacobs?"

Rachel shook her head. "No daddy, it's something I bought myself."

Leroy raised an eyebrow, pursing his lips. "Tell me it's something designer."

Rachel bit her bottom lip, avoiding his gaze. "Daddy, you just said I looked wonderful."

"All the same Rachela, maybe you should've worn that little number Chanel sent over the other day instead of this little thing it seems you picked out at somewhere like Forever 21. You're a star, you should dress like one." Leroy said firmly, ignoring his daughter's crestfallen expression.

Before Rachel could respond, Hiram placed a hand on his husband's shoulder. "Honey, like you said, our little Rachel looks fantastic tonight. Let her wear what she wants."

Leroy sighed before turning back to the other man in their company. "I'm terribly sorry for my little outburst Burt."

"It's alright, you sounded just like Kurt anyways, nothing I'm not already used to." Burt chuckled. "It's great to see you again Rachel, it's been a while. I'm guessing you've been busy?"

"Yes, sadly. I'm sorry I haven't had much time to come out here for my usual sleepovers with Kurt, I'm afraid my manager ensures that I'm busy as possible lately." Rachel pouted, slightly glaring at Santana, who had just picked up a champagne glass and was busy downing herself in it while speaking with a man seated next to her.

"You look real overworked kiddo!" Burt noted pitifully. "You guys oughta give the poor girl a break, I rarely see her at the house, let alone ours."

"I don't understand why our little Rachela insisted on buying the house again, but she convinced us into it." Leroy rolled his eyes.

"Lima is my home, daddy." Rachel interrupted hotly. "And I've been thinking of coming back for a while anyways." She subtly added.

"Sounds like a great idea, sweetie." Hiram replied warmly, ignoring Leroy's suddenly panic stricken face.

"Yeah, our house is always open for your little sleepovers with Kurt whenever you choose to stay." Burt acknowledged kindly.

"Thank you Burt! Congratulations on the position by the way, congress is lucky to have such a great, kind man amongst their ranks." Rachel smiled as Burt thanked her. "But have you seen Kurt tonight? I can't seem to find him anywhere."

Burt shook his head, giving a shrug. "I have no idea where the boy went off to, maybe you'll have better luck than me looking for him."

Rachel nodded, quickly scampering away before Leroy could pull her off to the side to discuss her "plans" for Lima.

After an additional few minutes of Rachel searching around the crowded room for Kurt while also avoiding her daddy, she gave up and decided to go up to his room for a bit in hopes of some peace and silence. After all, she did need some time to think through exactly how she'd propose her little idea tonight. Hiram would be more than enthusiastic with the idea, since he openly shared the idea of Lima being home to them. The only trouble would be convincing Leroy, and the worst part to come was Santana. She'd hoped that if she could find Kurt, maybe it would make things easier.

After knocking, Rachel pushed the door open, disappointed to discover Kurt's absence. She took out her phone to send a message to him, wondering where on earth he'd disappeared to.

Letting out a sigh, she pressed the home screen button. Maybe she'd open Twitter and see how the rest of the celebrity world was doing, although most of their tweets probably wouldn't convey much. Truthfully, Rachel wasn't really interested on what galas and events everyone was attending, she was more than thankful that she got to be in Lima for the night. When Jesse had heard the news, he'd simply snorted. "Lima? That's awful. Meanwhile, I get to fly out to L.A for a few days. It turns out that it's not only New York desperately in desire of one Jesse. St James."

"What are you doing up here?"

Lost in her thoughts, Rachel was more than startled to hear the curious, husky voice, one that definitely did not belong to Kurt. Dropping her phone in surprise, she looked up and met a pair of gorgeous, warm amber eyes. Her eyes refusing to part from his, she noticed a playful twinkle in them, his eyes full of curiosity as he stared at her with an eyebrow raised.

Realizing how long she had been staring at him, she abruptly stood up, brushing the bottom of her dress off as she felt her cheeks reddening. "I… um… uh… why are you in Kurt's room?" She sputtered, looking away from him. Why was she feeling so embarrassed? This was certainly a first. Rachel Berry never stuttered, or tripped over her words, no matter how nice a guy's eyes were.

"I could ask you the same thing." He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "How do you know Kurt anyways?"

Keeping her gaze fixated on the floor, she managed to come to her senses that he was asking her a question. "We've been really great friends for a really long time."

"Cool." The boy suddenly crouched down, his hands busy reaching for something by her feet. "Here." He stretched his hand upward toward her, as she realized he had her phone in his grasp. "You dropped this, you didn't seem to notice."

"Oh." Rachel felt her cheeks burning by this point as her fingers brushed lightly against his and left a warm, tingling sensation. "Thank you." She noticed his hands were enormous when compared to her tiny ones. Come to think of it, the guy had towered over her seconds earlier. Everything about him was bound to be huge.

He scrunched up his face in confusion for a second, remaining on the floor as he stared at her face. "Hey, you're—" His eyes widened in surprise, finally recognizing her.

"Berry Rachel." Rachel immediately placed a hand over her mouth in shock, humiliated at her mix up. "Oh my gosh. I meant, Rachel Berry."

"I know." He grinned sheepishly, finally pulling himself up from the floor. "Wow, you're even more beautiful in person."

She blushed, giving him a genuine, warm smile. For some reason, his compliment seemed to mean a hundred times more than any of the words Jesse ever uttered to her when in the presence of cameras. "Thanks, you're pretty cute too." Her eyes widened, mortified. Did she really just say what she thought she said? What had gotten into her?

She noticed the tips of his ears pinkened at her words as he gave her a slightly crooked smile.

"Well, since I know your name, I guess it's only fair if you know mine. I'm Finn Hudson." He extended his hand as she slowly took it in hers, trying her best to ignore the sudden sparks she felt jolt through her hand, spreading to the rest of her body as they made contact.

"Hi Finn." She managed to squeak as he removed his hand from hers. Don't look at his eyes! Lowering her gaze to his lips, she realized that was definitely not any better. His dimples could've killed her right there and then. Then there were his actual lips, and they looked so soft, so kissable…

He cleared his throat, and Rachel snapped back to reality. If her face weren't already a shade of beet red, she was sure it would've darkened even further. "So how do you know Kurt anyways?" She asked, curious.

"Well pretty much everyone here in Lima knows each other." He replied smoothly. "It's a small town. I know you're probably used to the city and all, but there's not too many people hustling about here to go unnoticed."

"I grew up here actually." She admitted, tucking back a loose strand of her hair. "The whole small town thing is one of my favorite aspects about it, I absolutely love it."

He nodded. "Me too. Sorry for asking, but I'm really curious. What were you doing here in Kurt's room?"

"Oh, I just needed to escape all the noise, and I was looking for Kurt anyways. I needed his advice on how to go about handling something but he wasn't here, so I figured I'd stay and think for a bit." She answered honestly, finally looking up to meet his eyes again. Bad decision.

"I was looking for him too actually. I know this sounds kinda lame, but f you need advice, or just a good listener, want me to try and help out?"

She was taken back by his question. He hadn't asked for an autograph, photograph, or anything. In fact, he hadn't expressed the desire for anything related to him. Here was Finn, a person she'd just met a few minutes ago, genuinely asking if she wanted his help on a matter.

"Sure." She found herself saying as she plopped onto the bed, watching as he followed suit and sat down next to her.

"So, what's the matter Rach?" He winced as soon as the words tumbled out of his mouth. "Oh crap, sorry. Wait sorry for saying crap. Crap. Okay I have this thing with word vomit, and I really need to fix it, my mom's always nagging for me to actually, and –"

Rachel giggled at him, shaking her head. "No, it's fine. I was just taken back because nobody ever calls me that. But I like it." She really did. Something about "Rach" just seemed so right, especially the way it seemed to roll so effortlessly off his tongue. It sure beat all the nicknames everyone else created for her, cringing from memory of a particular "Rachel Bear-y", courtesy of Jesse.

"Yeah, so what's wrong? If you're trying to dump someone, I could probably help with that. I've got loads of experience in that area." He sighed.

She smirked at him. "Are you a heartbreaker here in Lima?"

His face noticeably reddened as he shook his head. "No, no! I actually do it on behalf of my friend Puck. I let down all the girls he sleeps with, cause he's a sleep and dump kind of guy." He rolled his eyes.

Rachel laughed at how ridiculous and revolting this 'Puck' sounded. "No, it's not any boy problems. There's something career related I've been meaning to talk to my dads and manager about. I just don't know how to tell them."

Finn's face fell into a deep frown, concentrating hard. "Well, my mom's usually really nice and understanding anyways, but even if there's something really serious that I'm scared to tell her about, I just let it out. If it means that much to me, she always understands me in the end."

Rachel cracked a smile, her gaze falling towards the floor. "I wish both my dads were like that. I think my dad's going to accept it easily, but I'm not so sure about my daddy. And I'm deathly frightened about breaking the news to my manager."

"She might be your manager, but it _is_ your career, and your life." Finn pointed out. "Just break the news to her. Even if she disagrees, there's not much she can do about it."

"No, you don't get it. Santana is really, really scary when she threatens to go all Lima Heights." She shuddered.

Finn shrugged. "If it's something important that means a lot to you, don't be so scared to give it a try." He gave her an adorable half smirk. "Worst thing that can happen is you get a new manager."

Rachel shook her head, giggling. "I can't do that to Santana. As much of a nuisance she is sometimes, I still love her. I've grown up with her, so I can't really imagine life without her."

"Even better! If you've known her for a really long time, she's bound to understand eventually." He nudged her gently, the smirk still plastered on his face.

Rachel bit her bottom lip nervously. "Do you really think so?"

Finn nodded. "I know what I say doesn't really matter much, I mean I'm doing pretty badly in some of my classes, and a lot of people I know call me dumb. Not to mention, you met me about five minutes ago." He let out a chuckle. "But I think everything's going to turn out just fine. You're awesome at being dramatic, so just stick to that or something."

Rachel raised an eyebrow, smiling warmly. "Are you sure about people calling you dumb? I don't think you classify as unintelligent at all actually, and you give out some pretty great advice."

He grinned, rubbing the back of neck. "Really? Thanks, that means a lot to me. It's not everyday I get complimented by a celebrity."

"Well consider yourself lucky today." Rachel replied playfully.

Before Finn could even utter a word in response, the door suddenly burst open, causing Rachel to let out a squeak and she ended up jumping off the bed, startled.

"Oh Rachel, there you are! I was looking all over for you! Someone told me you came up here, so I thought—" Kurt's eyes narrowed as his gaze landed on Finn. "Finn, what are you doing in here?"

"I was looking for you actually." Finn answered sheepishly, running his fingers through his hair.

"So was I." Rachel added hastily, jumping to her feet. "We were just waiting around for you, talking."

"How do you two know each other?" Kurt asked, his eyes widening in curiosity.

"We don't. Or well, we didn't." Finn shrugged. "Now we sort of do, I guess."

"I was looking for you to ask for advice about _the thing_." Rachel emphasized the last two words, hoping he'd get the hint. "But it turns out Finn here gives out decent advice, so I don't need your help after all." She flashed a quick smile at Finn, who grinned in return.

Kurt raised an eyebrow, his tone laced with disbelief. "Are you being serious right now? Finn gave you advice? This is the same person who constantly mixes up the words objectifying and personifying, and I consider his miraculous days to be when he makes it through 24 hours without tripping up on his words, or better yet, his own two feet during Glee practice."

Finn let out a groan, glaring at him. "Way to go Kurt, embarrassing me as usual. In front of a celebrity though? Really?"

Kurt narrowed his eyes, huffing in annoyance. "Finn, I just had to make a run to the nearest store, which mind you was quite the trip from here, for some emergency tide-to-go because Ms. Applegate decided to inconsiderately slam right into me, spilling the entirety of the contents in her champagne glass. So excuse me for not being in the best of moods right now, because now the stain won't even budge." His frustration only deepened as his rant simply earned a howl of laughter from Finn. "This is not funny, Finn Hudson! This is designer brand! It's worth more than all your precious, stupid video games combined!"

Rachel managed to stifle a giggle before turning back to Finn. "Well, it was really nice meeting you Finn. I think I'm ready to talk to my dads and Santana now, but if I'm killed by Santana, I declare you two to be at complete fault for my death at her hands." She said dryly. "Maybe we'll meet again sometime soon in the near future, you could definitely tag along with me and Kurt on one of our endeavors." She added, ignoring Kurt's widening eyes, along with the fact that his mouth was slowly dropping open.

"Is that fancy talk for clothes shopping?" Finn rolled his eyes, chuckling softly. "I'll consider it, Rach."

Beaming, she gave a little wave before heading out the door avoiding Kurt's questioning gaze. She stopped on her heels for a slight second to turn her head back. "Oh, and Finn? Thanks again!"

* * *

Rachel quickly scanned the room with her eyes, finding that Santana was still firmly seated next to the same blonde man, and her dads were busy making conversation with someone she recognized to be Will Schuester, the director of Kurt's glee club at school.

She took a deep breath, trying to remind herself of the newly found confidence Finn's words had given her. Bracing herself, she decided to deal with all three of them at once and walked over to her dad, gently tapping his shoulder.

"I apologize for interrupting, Mr. Schuester. Dad, can I have a moment?" She asked sweetly, plastering a huge grin on her face. "And with you too daddy. There's something urgent I need to talk to you about."

Hiram gave an apologetic look to Will before quickly following Rachel, who had stormed right over to Santana.

"What is it? Can't you see I'm busy?" Santana hissed, motioning towards the attractive man sitting next to her, his eyes widening in surprise at the sight of Rachel.

"Santana, I need to talk with you for a second. Right after we're done, you can go right back to your new friend." Rachel rolled her eyes, and despite her protests, managed to pull Santana away towards her dads.

"Well, what is it honey?" Hiram asked, smiling at her. It was an encouraging sign. Rachel wondered whether it would be so hard after all.

"Yes, what was SO important that you had to drag me away from Brad?" Santana snapped. "Tick tock Berry."

She spoke too soon.

"Well, while the four of us are here, I just wanted to mention that there's a new movie under the works being directed by the one and only, wait for it, Steven Bradford! Making things even better, the female lead is a teenage girl!" Leroy exclaimed happily, causing what was left of Rachel's confidence to plummet straight down to her stomach. She'd been waiting for a chance like this for ages, she couldn't possibly give it up now. On the other hand, the prospect of taking a break and enrolling at McKinley still seemed so delightful to her… "You're definitely going to get an audition Rachela! Santana, you'll be making sure to get her one as soon as they start, right?"

Santana nodded, taking out her phone to make a note of it. "I heard about the movie a few days ago actually, but I've been waiting for more details surrounding the plot to be released before I actually talked to you about it. We'll have to wait a few weeks before they even begin to announce anything about auditions."

Overwhelmed by the sudden excitement being expressed by the trio, Rachel finally managed to open her mouth. "When does it start filming?"

"It'll have to start either June or July, but either way, it'll start just when _TF_'s coming back too." Santana replied, hastily typing away. Rachel silently let out a sigh of relief. McKinley was back on. "Not to worry, with my incredible scheduling, Rachel will definitely be able to juggle both."

"What do you think honey?" Hiram asked.

"Who cares what she thinks, this is Steven Bradford we're talking about!" Leroy interjected, his enthusiasm only growing by the minute. "It's great, because all the press and publicity events Santana's scheduled for you during your hiatus will be out of the way by then."

"Speaking of press commitments, my insane schedule is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about." Rachel cut them off, looking right into his eyes. "I've been finding myself really tired these days."

"Sweetie there's no doubt about it, you work hard, but it's not as if you're ALWAYS working." Leroy rolled his eyes. "You have plenty of time off."

"I _barely_ have time off." Rachel retorted, glancing around to ensure nobody was in earshot. "I love being a star daddy, but I'm exhausted. I need time off, and I'm going to take some this hiatus."

Leroy narrowed his eyes.

"Rachela, you have nearly a week off before your press commitments begin." Leroy insisted, crossing his arms. "That's enough time off as it is."

"It's not." Rachel let out a sigh, and found determination settling into her voice. "I'm sixteen years old, and while I may be living the dream to you and everyone else, I certainly don't always feel like it. Don't get me wrong, I love being on TV every week, and Broadway truly has been amazing, who would I be to not say I love fame? But I would really like to start doing things during my hiatuses that extend beyond the stage, the cameras, and all the interviews. I want to do things for myself, not because you or Santana told me to do, or because it'll look good on next week's episode of _Hollywood Live_. As much as I love you guys, this is _my _career and with all these nasty tabloids going around, and the whole mess with Harmony, I think the best thing for me to do right now, is relax and live a bit."

Santana had surprisingly stayed silent throughout the whole ordeal, merely raising an eyebrow at Rachel in response. "Wow. I must say, I'm impressed. I didn't know you gots it in you to actually stand up for yourself. What exactly did you have in mind though?"

Rachel bit her bottom lip nervously, taking a deep breath before answering. "I want to go to school. And before you say there's no way I can enroll anywhere because of my celebrity status, I'll be going in disguise."

Leroy nearly choked on his glass of champagne, frantically clutching his throat as Santana's eyes widened and she began stuttering, in complete shock. Hiram simply patted her on the back sympathetically, his lips pursed.

"You already have a tutor though." Hiram asked, confused. "Don't you love Monica?"

"Yes, she's great and all, but I want the full school experience. I want to sit in classrooms, go to dances, maybe even join glee club, and I definitely want to start actually interacting with other normal people my age." Rachel admitted, twirling a piece of her hair.

"Look Berry, I totally get that you want to try being a normal, hormonal teen and all, and I'm sure part of your reason includes macking on actual boys instead of curly haired, self centered, two faced assholes you're forced to work with. But if anyone catches you doing this, you're done for." Santana replied calmly, taking Rachel by surprise.

"But I won't be caught. I'll still take part in press and do most of the other things you tell me to outside of school hours, so it won't be as if I'm disappearing or anything." Rachel rolled her eyes. "I'll go to school for the remainder of the school year, so until June. That means I can still audition for the Bradford movie, and if I get the role, I can film and work on _TF_ too, fresh and ready to take it all back on. I'll make sure to attend certain events to keep up with my appearances also. I'm enrolling at McKinley, which is where Kurt goes, so it's not as if I'll be completely alone. I already let him in on the plan, and he's going to be helping me with everything along the way."

Santana sighed, snapping her fingers at someone to hand her their martini. Quickly downing it, she raised her fingers to her temples, rubbing furiously. "At least you'll be auditioning for the movie, so your head isn't completely screwed off. Alright, if you're going to go with this totally ridiculous idea, just promise me you'll have Adam and Stacy doing your look. They're your best shot at pulling this crap off."

Rachel nodded, her lips tugging into a smile.

"And you best not tell a single soul about this, besides Kurt. Make sure Lady Hummel has his lips sealed too, or you can tell him I'll be coming for his ass." Santana scowled.

"He won't tell anyone." Rachel replied, a wave of relief flooding over her as she realized she successfully managed to convince Santana, the most difficult person, just by finding confidence and spilling it all out on her with brutal honesty. Finn was right, it really wasn't all that hard once she stood up for herself.

"I'm warning you Rachel. Even if you meet the captain of the football team and he's practically sex on a stick to your eyes, you better not open that damn mouth and spill out everything to him." Santana added, narrowing her eyes.

Rachel quickly dismissed the notion with a wave of her hand. "Trust me, I won't be looking for any boys." She noticed that Leroy had remained silent the entire time, and looked at him nervously. "Daddy? Say something, at least?"

Leroy huffed, closing his eyes. "I don't understand why in the world you feel this is necessary Rachel. You've been doing perfectly fine in your career with our help, and you're just throwing it all away, for what exactly?"

"It's what I want, daddy. It's what's going to make me happy." Rachel pouted, careful not to over do it.

"Fine." Leroy finally muttered, causing Rachel to squeal with delight. It was finally settled.

"Wait, what day is it tomorrow?"

"Saturday." Santana replied, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "Why?"

Rachel beamed, already skipping away to find Kurt. "I need to go shopping!"

* * *

Stretching her arms out in front of her, Rachel groaned as she reached over to put an end to the extremely loud noise her alarm was making. After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she quickly tossed on her pink fuzzy robe and walked downstairs, rubbing her eyes sleepily. Hiram and Leroy had insisted that she wake up an hour earlier than usual to start creating the perfect disguise, and give it a try when she went shopping with Kurt.

"Morning." Rachel muttered to her two stylists, their gazes fixed upon a table, boxes and crates scattered along the floor.

"Good morning princess." Adam chirped, running over and dragging her towards the numerous crates of supplies.

"It's certainly been a while since we've been here in Lima." Stacy commented cheerily, quickly examining her face for any blemishes that might've popped up overnight.

"You guys look happy." Rachel noted, giving a weak smile.

"Well, I actually like this whole idea." Adam admitted, getting right to work with the hair straightener. "It's fabulous, it's fresh, and it's fun!"

Rachel giggled, staying still to avoid being burned by the scorching tool he held in his hand. "Really?"

"Yes, really. It's a change from your dull and boring usual routines." Stacy replied, a box full of wigs in her hands. She waited a few minutes until Adam was done. "Alright, what kind of hair do you want to go for Rachel? We can't do brunette, it's too signature-you, although I love those beautiful brown locks of yours."

"To start with, what length do you want?" Adam asked.

"I think the same length as my real hair would be nice." Rachel said.

"Sure can do. So since brunette is out of the question, how do you feel about going red-headed?"

Rachel bit her lip nervously, about to open her mouth when Adam suddenly shook his head, shuddering. "No, red wouldn't look good with you at all. It just doesn't work." Shuffling through the pile of wigs, tossing them as he went, he picked one up. "Blonde."

It was more of a statement than a question, but Rachel nodded enthusiastically. Secretly, she had always been curious as to how she'd look like blonde.

"This?" Adam turned towards her, revealing the pin-straight, smooth wig which included just as straight bangs in the front.

"It reminds me of Hannah Montana, honestly." Rachel laughed. "I kind of feel like her too with this whole two identities plan, except it's in inverse for my situation."

"Please, you're a hundred times more stylish, thanks to your incredibly talented team of stylists." Stacy giggled. "But you're right, that wig really does remind me of Miley Cyrus. Put it away, Adam."

Dropping it, he went through the wigs again. "How do you feel about this one?" He picked up a somewhat straight blonde wig with bright pink highlights fading from the ends.

Rachel shook her head, gently pushing it away. "No, I don't think so. I'll stick out; nobody really looks like a pop star in Lima."

Pursing his lips in concentration, Adam dug through the box until a gleam suddenly entered his eyes. Grinning, he picked one up and held it out for Rachel to inspect.

Rachel's mouth fell open as she stared at it, gaping. "It's pretty, but not too fancy either. It's normal enough, but not horrendous. I like it." She took it in her hands as Adam instructed her on how to pin her real hair back, fitting nicely under the skull cap she'd be wearing everyday. With his help, she put the wig on, noticing it was a snug fit.

"How do I look?"

"You look... normal."

"Not you, not by a long shot." Adam noted thoughtfully, tapping his fingers against his chin. "I kind of like it, the hair itself reminds me of Ashley Tisdale."

"Stayed up watching High School Musical with your beau again, I see." Stacy teased to Adam's protest, while handing Rachel a mirror to take a look herself.

Rachel raised it cautiously, and took a quick glance, nearly dropping it in alarm. She realized this unfamiliar person that was looking back at her, was herself. Holding it steady, she smoothed out the slight side bangs resting on the side of her face. Running a finger through the wavy, dirty blonde hair, she smiled.

"It's perfect."

"Great, so there's the hair. Now we have to worry about the other things. Even with that wig on, I can recognize you easily if I'm close enough." Stacy murmured, her eyes wandering over to a box sitting nearby. "It's your eyes. Those wide eyed melted chocolate beauties of yours are recognizable from a mile away." She burrowed through the box, quickly taking out a little case. "Try these on."

Rachel hesitantly popped in one of the lens in. After taking a glance at the mirror, she finally managed to get the other one in. Blinking furiously, she stood up to face them.

"What do you think?"

Stacy and Adam quickly rushed to get a better look, examining her face with curious eyes.

"Wow, now you really don't look like you." Stacy noted, widening her eyes. "This is great."

"You look just like any other girl in Lima, specifically speaking; you look like you're one of the stereotypical cheerleaders." Adam gushed, his eyes gleaming in delight. "You're prettier than all of them by far honey, don't worry about it. Although I must say, you're not as mesmerizing without your classic Rachel Berry eyes, and your matching, gorgeous chocolate colored hair."

"Alright, last thing to work on is your nose." Stacy said firmly. "Rachel sweetie, we love your nose. It's so, you. But that's exactly why we've got to try to get rid of it."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Well, it's not as if you can rip off my nose and glue on a new one."

"The magic of contouring does the trick." Stacy laughed as she quickly started to use her brushes on Rachel's face. "Also, just the right frames help too."

Adam shoved a pair of glasses into her hands. "Put them on." He ordered.

Placing them on the bridge of her nose, adjusting them till it felt just right, Rachel hesitated before uncovering her face to show the new look.

"Wow, you make those glasses look pretty sexy." Stacy encouraged. "We got you the most popular frames right now. I'm pretty sure the people who wander around with the lens-less ones call themselves hipsters."

Adam stared at her for a good while and beamed. "You actually look fabulous Rachel, you manage to make this whole look work. But more importantly, you don't look like you at all. Ready to give it a test run?"

Rachel smirked, already making her way upstairs to get changed. "You betcha."

* * *

Adam had picked out a casual outfit that Rachel was more than happy to wear. It consisted of a pair of dark jeans, and a simple, loose racerback white tank top. She threw on a red peacoat, along with a plain white scarf and matching gloves. To top the outfit off, she wore a white beanie, fitting snugly against her new blonde locks. To her joy, she found that nothing she wore was designer, or even all that expensive for the matter. She slammed the car door, running quickly toward the entrance, fighting against the brisk February air.

Lima only had one major shopping mall and the only people who shopped here were the locals, making it extremely easy for Rachel to spot Kurt impatiently tapping his foot, waiting by the water fountain, and looking up from his phone every few seconds in search of her.

She felt her phone buzz and took a quick glance at it.

**Where are you?**

Rachel grinned as she mischievously typed out a response back.

**I'm still on my way, sorry! I'll be there in five minutes.**

She was close enough to Kurt by now to register that he'd received the message as she heard him let out an irritated sigh.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward, trying her hardest to manipulate her voice to sound a tad different than she normally did.

"Excuse me, but do you happen to know where the restrooms are?"

Kurt widened his eyes, startled by the sudden voice coming so close to him. "Oh, sorry. I thought you were a friend I'm waiting for, she always plays stupid tricks on me like this." Rolling his eyes, he pointed toward the bathroom signs. "Well, I'd think that those signs indicate the direction of the restrooms." He turned his attention back to his phone, causing Rachel to burst into laughter.

"Kurt!"

He jumped backwards, eyeing her suspiciously.

"How do you know my— Rachel?!" He shrieked.

"Shh, not so loud!" Rachel hissed, stopping herself from clamping a hand over his mouth for the sake of all the onlookers, staring at the pair curiously. "Yes, it's me you idiot. You really didn't recognize me?"

Kurt shook his head, still clutching his chest. "My goodness, you had me there for a second. I was wondering why on earth someone would ask where the bathrooms are if there are signs plastered all over the place."

She giggled, triumphant by her success in deceiving her best friend. "If even you can't recognize me, this will definitely work."

He nodded in response, eyeing her up and down. "That's a killer disguise."

"Made by only the best." She said smugly, already making her way towards Charlotte Russe.

Three hours later, Rachel's arms were full of bags, handles dangling on her arms all the way beyond her elbow. Kurt was carrying the rest of them, clearly struggling from the heavy weight.

"I didn't know I was going to be your personal servant for the day." He snapped, picking up a shoebox that had fallen while he was regaining his balance.

"Sorry Kurt, but I pretty much need an entirely new wardrobe. If anything, I'll be yours next time." She teased happily, more than satisfied from the day's shopping spree.

They sat on the bench, to Kurt's relief, setting the bundles and bundles of bags down and opted to switch for pretzels in their hands, waiting for Rachel's chauffer/bodyguard, Jake.

"So, have you picked out a name yet? You know, your fake alias?" Kurt prodded, taking a bite of his pretzel.

"Not yet." Rachel admitted, dipping a piece into the cheesy sauce next to her.

"Ooh, let me help." Kurt scrunched his face up into concentration, closing his eyes. "I say we go for something really common, it's the easiest way out."

"Sydney?" Rachel suggested.

"Pass."

"Faith?"

"No."

Rachel thought for a moment. "Well, Adam said my hair reminded him of Ashley Tisdale."

"Ashley. Ashley…" Kurt mumbled to himself. "That could work."

Rachel nodded in agreement. "Now, to think of a middle and last name."

"Why do you need a middle name? Not everyone has one." He pointed out.

She shrugged. "I like the feel of it. Rachel Barbara Berry. Kurt Elizabeth Hummel."

"Fair point."

"Well, I was thinking for a last name, Levine. How does that sound?" Rachel asked hesitantly.

"Ashley Levine." Kurt repeated. "It's flattering, go with it." His eyes suddenly wandered behind her, his gaze fixated upon a sign. "I wasn't aware they were opening a Brookstone here."

"Brook!" She squealed, causing Kurt to nearly drop his pretzel onto the floor. "That's it! Ashley Brook Levine!"

"Ooh. Guess my rambling was a burst of inspiration for you." Kurt smiled, nodding. "Sounds great, Ashley." He winked as she rolled her eyes, taking another bite.

"This is so much fun." Rachel beamed. "I'm actually really excited for school, especially my first day."

Kurt furrowed his eyebrows, scoffing. "Well, you're the first person I know to say that. I doubt you'll make it through the first week, let alone survive four months."

"Hey! Rachel Berry can do anything!" She insisted, playfully nudging him.

"Well Miss Blonde-hair-and-green-eyes, you're no longer Rachel Berry." He chuckled. "From now on, to everyone else here in Lima, you shall be known as Ashley Levine."


	3. The First Day

**Guess who's finally back with an update?! Sorry it's been so long since my abrupt silence here, but work and school's been literally swallowing me alive with all this work and pressure to do well this year. Not to mention, it's been pretty difficult to strike up inspiration for my stories with things like parenchyma cells and the protestant reformation on the brain everyday. Thank goodness for weekends! However, you can always follow me on Tumblr (right now I'm corysfinn), I'm always active there (or at least the most active I can be).**

**On a sidenote, who else is not ready at all for this Thursday? It may be "Farewell to Finn", but I know that I'll never truly be saying goodbye to Finn, or Cory. I will always love you so much Cory, and that's exactly why I'm sticking through to write Finn the happy endings he deserved.**

**Alright, enough of me babbling. I know this one's a bit short, but that's all I've had the time for lately. All the same, I hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing from Glee.**

* * *

"Principal Figgins will see you now, Ashley."

Rachel rose from her chair shakily, her legs almost giving way. She took out her phone and took a quick glance at the front camera, momentarily confused by the stranger looking back at her. Ensuring that everything looked good, she braced herself with a huge grin before stepping forward. In her mind, she replayed the millions of conversations she had had with Santana, Kurt, and her dads the entire past week. The plan was set, and she knew everything she possibly needed to know about her family, her history, and her life. To the rest of Lima, Ashley Levine was the perfect, charming, straight-A daughter of Patty and Steven Levine. As for her parents, her father was a professor at Colombia University, and her mother was a doctor at Mount Sinai. Since both of them were renowned for incredible works in their respective fields, it explained the large amounts of cash "her family" possessed.

Finally building up the courage, she hesitantly knocked on the door.

"Come in, Miss Levine." A voice answered.

She opened the door and walked in to see a short, pleasantly plump, dark skinned man waving her over to his desk. "Come in! Maria, hold any calls that come through. Oh, and Ashley please shut the door behind you."

Rachel took a seat, anxiously waiting for the man to say something, anything. He sat there in silence, peering at her curiously.

He finally broke the silence. "Is that really you, Rachel Berry?"

Rachel shook her head. "As flattered and truly honored I am for being compared to such an amazing, talented idol as Miss Berry, whom I hold incredibly high respect for, I am no one other than the simple Ashley Levine."

Figgins laughed, clapping his hands in amusement. "You really are a great actress, Rachel Berry. It is really an outstanding disguise, for I could not recognize you at all and if I did not already know it was you, I would not have been the wiser."

Rachel beamed, relaxing at his compliment. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all. "Thank you for allowing me to enroll here, Principal Figgins."

"It is not a problem at all. And my lips are sealed, Rachel Berry. That feisty Santana Lopez made sure that I will stick to the privacy agreement no matter what, and I am more than happy to keep your secret." He smiled, averting his eyes to a small slip of paper on his desk. "I also wanted to thank you in person for your generous donation to the school, which did not have a factor in my decision at all." Figgins hastily added.

Rachel resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and gave a weak smile in return. If Santana weren't so intimidating already, the money most definitely sealed the deal.

He rummaged through the pile of papers on his desk before pulling one out and handing it to her. "Here is your class schedule, which you obviously need. Your first class is Spanish with Mr. William Schuester."

Suddenly, a loud bell rang throughout the halls as Rachel bit her lip nervously. "I hope I'm not late."

"Nonsense." Figgins dismissed her comment with a wave of his hand. "But I was wondering if you could make a guest appearance at our next rally, as yourself Rachel Berry. Maybe you could sing something and talk the students out of their giggle juice addictions. Somebody as big and famous as you could make a very big impact on our school."

Rachel simply nodded, his words barely registering in her brain as she raised her gaze towards the clock. She was definitely running late.

"Also, perhaps you could consider joining Glee club? The New Directions recently performed a number by Ke-dollar sign-ha, and I think if you joined they could have some spunk to win Nationals this year."

Giving him a brief look of confusion at his pronunciation of Ke$ha, she ignored the difficulty of her voice going unrecognized amongst crowds of thousands of people and just nodded in response again and started making her way to the door. "I'm really sorry Principal Figgins, but maybe we could continue this talk another time? I'm already late for my very first class, and I don't want to make a bad impression on my teachers."

"William is very lenient, you will be fine. But if you must." Figgins sighed. Gratefully, she flashed him a huge smile before dashing off in search of her Spanish room. Cursing the fact that Kurt took French, she resorted to skipping past every room on the third floor until finding 315.

After a brutal ten minutes of searching the place, Rachel let out a sigh of relief when she finally found the room. Unfortunately for her, she was about twenty minutes late. Yanking on the handle, she threw the door open and ran into the room, nearly out of breath. To her embarrassment, she ended up bumping directly into the teacher.

"Whoa, calm down there." The curly haired man chuckled, crossing his arms playfully. "You must be Ashley. And here I was thinking that you weren't going to show up today."

Rachel's cheeks flushed from embarrassment, avoiding his eyes as she finally took a glance around the room. To her humiliation, it wasn't any better. About twenty pairs of eyes were staring right at her, most of them full of amusement. "I'm super sorry, Mister…"

"Schuester." He extended a hand to her, smiling warmly. "Would you like to try out your Spanish speaking skills and introduce yourself?"

Rachel's eyes widened in surprise, her nerves completely overwhelming her. Her eyes darted across the room until she met a pair of familiar, amber ones. She nearly jumped in shock as she realized that Finn Hudson, the boy she had met at Kurt's party the other day, was here, wearing a letterman's jacket, sitting in her Spanish class. Of course! He had said that he went to McKinley, and she had also suspected him to be the same age as her. It took her a minute before her relief faded, as she realized that Finn had met her, as in Rachel Berry. He had no idea who she, Ashley Levine, was.

"Buenos dias, me llamo Ashley." Rachel stuttered, forcing herself to look anywhere but at Mr. Schuester. "Soy de la ciudad de Nueva York, pero mis padres decidieron vivir aquí en Lima."

"Esta bien, señorita?"

"Si, estoy muy bien."

"Estoy alegre porque usted le gusta Lima. Comprendo hoy es la día primera, pero quiero usted asista a mi clase en tiempo por favor. ¿Comprende?"

Rachel felt her mind go blank at his rapid speaking, biting her lip nervously. All she had managed to get out of his sentence was "tiempo". Maybe he was asking about the weather?

"¿Tiempo? Hace frio."

She noticed Finn full out laugh at her response, and she furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance.

Mr. Schuester gave her a confused look, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "Err, Rachel. I meant tiempo as in time. I said that I'll allow today to slide, but please come to my class on time from now on."

Rachel felt her face heat up, and she simply nodded before quickly making her way over to the nearest empty seat, conveniently right in back of Finn.

"She looks pretty hot."

The blonde to the right of Finn turned to the Mohawk haired boy sitting on the other side of her. "Shut up Puck. She's probably just another snobby New Yorker." Ouch. Rachel narrowed her eyes at how obvious and rude this girl was, not even having bothered to whisper.

To her surprise, she heard Finn mutter, "Knock it off, Quinn."

"Finn! Don't tell me you think she's hot too!" This so-called Quinn raised her voice angrily, causing Rachel to nearly jump out of her seat. Secretly, she awaited his answer eagerly. Even if she didn't exactly look like herself at the moment, it was still a nice feeling to be flattered and awed over.

To her disappointment, before Finn could reply, Mr. Schuester cleared his throat at the pair, causing Finn to immediately dive right back into his textbook and Quinn to simply shake her head and turn back to Puck.

Rachel felt her phone vibrate multiple times but after her embarrassing encounter with Mr. Schue, she didn't dare to take even a quick glance at it. Besides, the class was going by so quickly that she felt her head spinning as her fingers desperately raced to keep up with the notes Mr. Schue kept spewing out. To her relief, the bell finally rung and Rachel practically sprinted out of the room as she pulled out her phone.

Making sure that nobody held direct eyesight with the screen, she scanned her missed messages. After sending out a short reply to Santana to confirm a meet and greet for the next afternoon, she managed to quickly jam the phone back into her pocket.

"Hey, you dropped your el book."

Rachel turned around to meet those familiar, ever gorgeous and warm amber eyes. Focus, Rachel.

"It's actually el libro." She muttered, remembering how he had laughed at her before and tried her hardest not to snatch the book from his hands.

"Whatever, I wouldn't say I'm too bright anyways." He grinned, causing her expression to soften a bit. It comforted her that he hadn't treated her any differently as Rachel Berry, teen celebrity, than he was treating her now. "I'm sorry Mr. Schue was kinda hard on you today. He's normally really cool with everything."

"It's fine." She answered honestly.

"So you're from the city…" He furrowed his eyebrows with determination, and looked pretty adorable doing so, she noted. "Ashley?"

Rachel nodded, giving him a genuine smile. "Yes. I'm Ashley Levine."

"Cool. I'm Finn Hudson." He reached out his hand and she shook it, ignoring that familiar jolt of electricity suddenly running through her veins at the contact.

"I know." She felt her face flush as he raised an eyebrow questionably. "I–I heard you talking with Quinn earlier." She added hastily, hoping he hadn't caught on.

"Oh, you did?" He rolled his eyes. "Ignore Quinn, she probably just feels threatened by you, especially if you decide to join the Cheerios, or something like that. She's actually a really nice person if you get to know her."

Fighting back the urge to scoff at how utterly ridiculous that sounded and how much a vindictive harpy Quinn already seemed to be, Rachel merely shrugged. "I suppose so. There's not much to feel threatened by though. I come straight from the city, and Quinn's still one of the prettiest girls I've ever seen. She's definitely prettier than me."

"Hey Ash, don't say that. I think you're pretty." He said sheepishly, as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I hope you don't mind me calling you that."

"Ash? Or pretty?" Rachel giggled, already enjoying how effortless it felt to talk to him.

"Both." He grinned.

Rachel's face fell slightly as she noticed Quinn rapidly approaching. The other girl planted herself firmly between Finn and Rachel, glaring at the brunette.

"Hey. New girl! I see you've already met my boyfriend, Finn." Quinn smirked slyly, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist. She lifted her head from his chest for a moment. "By the way baby, I need you to come over after school today to take a look at my Spring Fling dresses and tell me what I look best in."

Trying her hardest to stop herself from rolling her eyes at Quinn's obviousness, Rachel gave a smile just as fake back. "Don't you two look lovely together? Your names even rhyme."

Quinn tilted her head, her smile widening as her grip on Finn noticeably tightened. "Then you'll be happy to know, we've been dating since freshman year and nothing's going to change that anytime soon."

"Then you'll be quite happy to know, I was just leaving." Rachel countered, taking the book out of Finn's grasp. "Thank you for picking up my book, Finn." She said coolly. She noticed as he quickly detached himself from Quinn, nearly yanking her arm off of him. Ignoring Quinn shooting daggers with her eyes, she brushed past the pair.

"I'll see you later, Ash!" She heard his voice call after her. She didn't bother looking back.

* * *

"Ashley, these are my fellow members of Glee club."

"Hello there." Rachel smiled warmly, taking a seat next to Kurt.

"I'm Sam. Sam I am. And I don't eat green eggs and ham." The blonde with the large lips winked at her, causing her to giggle at his both awkward and adorable introduction.

"This is Tina and Mike." Kurt pointed at the friendly looking Asian couple, looking cozy in one another's company as Tina briefly lifted her head from his shoulder to give a wave. "And this is my precious girl, Mercedes." The dark skinned girl gave her a grin as she plopped a tater tot in her mouth.

"Hey Ashley, I'm Blaine." The handsome, dark haired boy perked up. He sure had a lot of gel in his nice hair though. "I'm new too, I just transferred here from Dalton."

"I'm Artie and it's a pleasure to meet you." The boy in the wheelchair smiled at her. The blonde next to him looked at her curiously. "Your nose is sorta big."

Rachel felt her cheeks flush at the comment, fumbling with her glasses and hoping she hadn't noticed how similar her nose was to a certain celebrity…

"Sorry, Brittany says a lot of things." Artie apologized on her behalf.

Thankfully, Brittany didn't seem to catch on. "I feel like I've never seen you before." Brittany stated, scrunching up her face in confusion. "Are you in glee club? Because this has happened to me with Tina before."

Rachel shook her head, letting out a nervous chuckle. "Not to worry, your memory is intact. I'm not in Glee."

"Are you considering joining?" Sam asked hopefully, putting away his chapstick.

Rachel quickly exchanged a glance with Kurt before giving a shrug. "I don't know." She replied honestly. "Kurt here's been telling me such wonderful things about the New Directions actually, all through Trigonometry. I think he's trying to recruit me." She added, voicing the already rehearsed words.

Mercedes rolled her eyes. "Figures that Kurt would be recruiting someone from the moment he meets them. We're a member short right now since our buddy Matt moved away about a month ago." She explained.

"Well is it really that bad I want to make it to Nationals this year?" Kurt retorted defensively.

"Oh, that sounds awful." Rachel bit her lip thoughtfully.

"You should join!" Blaine suggested. Tina and Mike nodded in agreement.

"Well…"

"You're not going to be really popular if you join though, unless you join the Cheerios too." Brittany said, shrugging. "What? It's true. At least it is for me and Quinn."

"Quinn's in it?"

Kurt nodded, raising an eyebrow. "How do you know her?"

"Spanish." Rachel managed to say through clenched teeth. "She really knows how to get on a person's nerves, doesn't she?"

Mercedes laughed. "Quinn's not all too bad. She's one of us, after all."

"Well yeah of course, but she's a cheerio the other half of the time." Tina pointed out. "Which means she's also a real bitch sometimes. No offense, Brittany."

"None taken." Brittany said happily.

"Well, I can be quite the diva most of the time and you all still love me." Kurt smiled, causing all of them to burst out into laughter.

"Sometimes, I just don't understand why her and white boy are dating." Mercedes wondered, causing Rachel to slightly perk up. "Yes, head cheerio and quarterback seems perfect for each other and all, but they're just so different." Wait, Finn was quarterback? She did notice the letterman jacket. Figures.

"Finn's really down to earth, and Quinn's more… out there." Kurt shrugged.

"Does he ever talk about Quinn at home?" Artie asked.

"Not really. He seems worn out lately though. Quinn's been on full Spring Fling mode the past few weeks." Kurt replied, shoving a mouthful of lettuce into his mouth. He made a face and promptly spit it back out.

"You live with Finn?" Rachel blurted out, causing Kurt to look at her funny.

"We just became stepbrothers about a month ago." He answered carefully, giving her a look that spelled out how-do-you-not-remember-this-I-told-you-months-ago . She avoided his gaze and went back to playing with the fries on her tray. The one not so glamorous thing about school was definitely the food. She really missed the seemingly endless tables of quality food, catered by the best chefs on the _TF_ set right about now.

"Anyways, don't worry about Quinn. She's okay, even though she did cheat on me for Finn." Sam rolled his eyes, before giving Rachel a grin. "So are you going to join?"

She felt everyone's attention suddenly turn towards her, their faces all eager and anticipating her response. Even Kurt was looking at her hopefully.

Rachel gulped. She was already suffocating under the weight of all the promotions and press she was obligated to do, not to mention Ms. Doosenbury had just assigned her a huge paper due on Friday. Also, there was the question of how exactly was she going to pull this off? She couldn't exactly showcase her best talents to Glee; somebody was bound to recognize her voice, especially in a crowd of thousands at Regionals, or Nationals.

On the other hand, wasn't this was she came to McKinley for? Everyone in this group just seemed so welcoming, and great. Well, minus Quinn. There was also the great opportunity for her to see Finn sing and dance…

"Sure." She heard herself say weakly. Everyone surrounding her broke into grins simultaneously, high fiving one another and cheering.

"Great! You'll audition at today's meeting!" Sam declared, before turning his attention back towards fixing his hair.

"I'm looking forward to it." Mercedes smiled at her.

"Me too." Kurt smirked, before opening this month's issue of Vogue for the two to look at.

Rachel could barely concentrate on the outfits, and Kurt's critiquing of them. She was too busy wondering what exactly she'd just gotten herself into. At least she'd get to spend extra boatloads of time with everyone, and actually have some friends to hang out with and talk to. It reassured her that life at McKinley was looking even better and better with every second that went by. This was a brilliant plan. Rachel Berry finally felt relaxed, happy, normal, and she loved it. She couldn't wait till Glee later that day.

Telling Santana to cut down on the press, she wasn't looking forward to as much…


End file.
